Love, Exclamation Mark
by LoveandScience
Summary: The sequel to Love, Question Mark. Adam had no interest in parenting some random child from the street, but he could play along, for Frank's sake.
1. Chapter 1

_Twenty-five years together._ _Holy shit_, thought Frank Pritchard, jogging down Main Street in Old Chicago. He and Jensen had moved here when it looked like New York was getting dicey a few years ago, what with Page Industries and UNATCO gaining more control. Somewhere quiet, but where Adam could still keep an ear out for Sarif.

Not that Sarif was a big player, anymore. Augmentation had ceased being trendy with the populace, and they mostly just designed for rich eccentrics looking to enhance themselves. But the CEO always hoped for a comeback, especially with the new nanotech Page had developed and released to the government. Unfortunately, regulations had soared on how much and how quickly they could install new tech in their clients, stifling business a significant amount.

The raven-haired man (who was greying quite substantially) rounded a corner on to Orange Street, slowing when he noticed a small body slumped against the library wall.

"Hey, kid, you alright?"

The child looked up at the older man from under a mess of black hair. "I'm waiting for my mom."

Pritchard noted the girl's dirty clothing and fetid odor. "Get up, and I'll help you look for her."

"I'm not supposed to go with strangers," she replied, but stood up anyway.

"What's your name?" the writer asked, leading her into the building.

The girl was quiet for a moment. "Alex. I'm five."

The ex-hacker smiled. "Well, Alex who is five, if you don't see your mother in here, I'll take you up to the local police station and see if they can't find her."

When they finished their tour of the building with no luck, the child took Pritchard's hand and looked at him, searchingly. "Some mean man took my mommy, and he told me she'd be right back, only, it's been a whole day, and she was crying when he took her."

A sickening feeling creeping into the pit of his stomach, Frank tried to remain calm.

* * *

"Pritchard, our anniversary was a week ago. You didn't need to get me another child sacrifice."

Frank glowered at his partner. "Shut up, you sarcastic..." he glanced at the girl, "...butthole. You'll scare her." Ruffling the messy girl's head, he reassured her. "He's joking, and he's _not funny_."

Adam cringed at the wrath of his ex-hacker. "Right, right, sorry." The cyborg looked at the child. "Sorry. Um, hi, I'm Adam. And I only look scary and make bad jokes."

Shy and quiet, she moved to hide behind Pritchard, anyway.

"This is Alex. Alex, can I ask you to stay in the other room for a minute? I need to talk with Adam. Just go on down the hall and look around, okay?" She nodded and sped off down the corridor. "Look, I think this girl's parents were murdered. We dropped by the police station and they hadn't heard of anybody looking for her, but they're running a search for the mother. However, she told me some man dragged her mom off and it doesn't sound good. Rather than stick her in some sort of government agency, I thought it'd be best to let her stay here."

The cyborg crossed his arms. "We've talked about kids before, Frank."

"I know. But you can't expect me to just leave her on her own. I'll assume full responsibility."

"I couldn't even keep my dog alive. They euthanized him when I nearly died."

Pritchard sighed. Some wounds didn't heal with time. He leaned in with a warm hug, kissing his partner softly. "I know."

"Of course she can stay, just don't expect me to turn into some sort of super-parent." Adam smiled. "Though, I have to say, I enjoy watching you in protective daddy mode."

Frank swatted him playfully on the chin, rolling his eyes before walking off to find Alex.


	2. Chapter 2

"Alright, Alex, can you go brush your teeth?"

The freshly-bathed child stared at Pritchard with a smirk. "I caaa-aaan," she answered in a sing-song voice.

He narrowed his eyes playfully. "You can, but will you? Or will I need to get the tickle monster out?" Raising his hands, he stepped towards her and wiggled his fingers.

"NOOOOO!" she screamed, laughing and zipping off in a blur.

Frank smiled to himself. She'd been with them for about a month, and she seemed to be holding up pretty well, but she was taking on some of his snark. Really, the only hard part of this had been seeing her wake up screaming night after night. He knew she missed her parents, but she was trying to hide it and wouldn't talk about them. The police had found no leads on where they might be, and Adam was getting antsy about how this might be a permanent arrangement. The cyborg had kept his distance from Alex, convinced that he'd somehow fuck her up.

Frank could tell, however, that the ex-cop cared. He could see it in the way he'd half-smile when she said something clever, or the way he quietly observed her and handed her a crayon or a glass of water before she had to ask for it.

The ex-hacker turned around as he felt two metallic arms slide around his waist. The two kissed briefly as a way of greeting. "It almost bedtime? For us, I mean?" Jensen's voice was still rough and deep, and Frank had come to find it remarkably sensual.

"Yes, in about an hour." Adam had aged well. Not just because there wasn't much natural body left to age; the lines on his face suited him, making him appear that much more fierce. He didn't blame Alex for being frightened. At least the cyborg had gotten over his body image issues and kept his shades retracted most of the time, so he looked a little less menacing for that.

It was then that he noticed a little face peering around the corner. "I'll see you in a bit. It's time for her bedtime stories," Frank explained as he pulled from the embrace.

* * *

"But can't you just read one more? I hate sleeping," Alex pouted, giving the writer her best puppy-dog eyes.

It broke his heart, really, because she had every reason to avoid sleep. "No, you really have to get some rest. I've been reading for over an hour."

Glaring at the ceiling, the girl harrumphed.

"Alex, tomorrow I'm going to take you to meet someone special. She's a very nice woman who wants to help you and talk about what's been going on every night."

Panic flashed across her face. "NOOOOooooooOOOOoooo! I don't waaaant to talk to some weird woman about it!"

Putting an arm around her in an awkward side-hug, he tried to calm her down. "She's going to help make the nightmares stop."

She pulled out of his grip. "Go away."

Frank nodded quietly, and left her without another word.

* * *

Alex refused his comfort for the bad dreams that night, and still wasn't talking at breakfast. She ate quickly, determined to go back to her room and get away from him. Pritchard didn't push her, accepting that she needed her space, and headed to his office to work on his most recent television script.

Shrugging at the silence, Adam took his time with breakfast, catching up on the news via internet augmentation. Forty minutes or so passed before Alex sat down at the table with her coloring book.

"You look like a monster," she stated, matter-of-factly. "The man who took my mother was yelling that metal heads were unnatural. He probably wouldn't have liked your metal arms, either."

It took a moment for the cyborg to process that the man had probably meant 'metal-heads,' as an insult to augmentation in general. "You're probably right," he agreed.

"Are you all metal?"

"No."

"Why don't you have normal arms?"

Memories bubbled inside of Adam's skull. "A long time ago, someone hurt me very badly. When the doctors patched me up, they gave me new arms, legs, and eyes."

"Why did someone hurt you?"

"Some people just hurt other people. It's not really fair."

Alex nodded, sagely. "My mom, she used to say that life wasn't fair." After a few minutes of silence, she looked back up from her picture. "Do you have nightmares?"

"Why do you ask that?" he replied, perplexed at the route the conversation had taken.

She looked sheepish. "One night I was going to get Frank, because I hadn't screamed and so he wasn't there and I was just scared, so then I came looking for him but then I heard you yell, and I went back to bed."

He remembered that night. He'd been bothered at how this whole situation made him think about Kubrick, and consequently, Megan and all he'd endured twenty-five years ago. "Sometimes, but not nearly as much as I used to."

"Do you think mine will go away except for sometimes, too?"

"Yes."


	3. Chapter 3

"Why do you think you're here, Alex?"

Said girl stared defiantly at the ceiling.

"I think you'll eventually need to talk with somebody. You're here because people are worried about you. You can't go on having nightmares every night, now, can you?"

Silence.

"Do you want to color?"

She shook her head and looked at the floor, swinging her feet in boredom.

* * *

Frank flipped through a book on his tablet, hoping the session in the other room was going well. The waiting room was stifling, and he sincerely hoped that wasn't foretelling of the therapist's nature. His infolink crackled, signaling an incoming connection, and he smiled. It was Adam.

"I'm just calling to say I'm sorry," he began, cutting right to the point, as was his usual manner.

"For what?"

Pritchard heard the cyborg take a steadying breath. "Watching you these last few weeks, it's clear that you wanted children more than I ever thought. I'm sorry that I didn't realize just how much it meant to you. You're really good at it, and if I'd have known... I'd have gotten over my crap and-"

"Jensen," the ex-hacker interrupted, "Adam, it's okay. I never pushed the subject, because I've been happy with just the two of us. Adopting a child would have required both of us to really want it, and you can't force somebody to want that. I don't resent anything, if that's what you're worried about."

Adam radiated relief, even unseen, and sighed. "You know the reason we've been able to make this work for so long?"

"My pretty face?"

"I'm serious, Francis," the ex-security chief chided. "It's because when something comes up, we don't start bullshitting and acting weird. We fucking talk about it. So I'm going to tell you this: I've gotten attached. I'm not happy about it, but there you have it."

The smaller man smiled. "If I'd have known just bringing a kid home would work, I'd have done it ages ago."

"Yeah, and I'd have clocked you one for being an asshole. Listen to me. Since I'm invested in this now, I'm going to tell you that if she's resistant to therapy, it's not going to work. But she talked to me after breakfast this morning when you were in the other room, and I think I can help."

"You're not a therapist, Adam. You don't know how to play that role. I'm glad she talked to you, but you're not experienced in this kind of thing."

"Not experienced? Pritchard, are you forgetting all that shit I went through? And I dealt with it."

A moment of silence passed, and both realized the other wouldn't be changing their position on the matter.

"Alright, Frank," the ex-SWAT said softly. "I've said my bit. I'll see you when you get home."

"Adam," the older man answered, his tone just as gentle, "thanks for caring."

* * *

Pouting, Alex got in the car. "I hate her," she declared, arms crossed.

"I'm sorry you hate her, but she's really a nice lady," Pritchard replied, looping her arms through the carseat straps. "Unless she tried to hurt you. Did she?"

"No," the girl conceded, letting herself be buckled in, "but I still hate her."

"Can you at least give her another chance?"

She sighed. "I guess so."

* * *

The five-year-old woke with a start. She guessed she hadn't screamed again, because she waited a few minutes and Frank didn't come running in.

Wiping some tears with her shirt-sleeve, she grabbed her blanket and headed across the house. She had reached the kitchen before she heard a rough voice. "Alex?" The girl jumped and turned toward the kitchen table.

"It's okay, it's just me," Adam reassured, "I'm sorry I scared you. Are you okay?"

She shook her head, heart still racing, and started crying softly. "Where is my mom? Why did she leave me?"

"Come here," he said, and lifted her on to his lap when she did. "There are some really mean people in the world, and they have so much hate and pain inside them that they go out and hurt others. Most of them were hurt, themselves, and they never learned how to cope. We don't know where your mom is, but the police said they're looking. I'm going to be honest, Alex. We might not ever find out, and I'm sorry. It's not right. You should have answers. But your mom didn't want to leave you. She was forced by those people."

"My dad," she murmured through tears, "they hurt him and there was blood on him. And my mom took me and ran. But they got us anyway."

"I'm sorry, Alex." When she didn't seem to be interested in saying more, he lifted her up and set her in the chair next to him. "How about I make you some hot chocolate with marshmallows, and then you can get some more sleep?" She nodded quietly, and he crossed over to the kitchen.

* * *

"Trouble? No, this is perfect," the first voice said.

Like the sound of a toothbrush scrubbing sandpaper, the second voice responded, "how is this perfect?"

"The robot will keep her safe until we need her, obviously. We won't have to worry about other groups getting in our way."

"Oh," came the unpleasant second voice.

"And they'll make her strong enough to be useful. Alex Denton will have a very good life until we need her."


	4. Chapter 4

He created her because he wanted to be perfect. Well, the official reason was to further the goals of the Illuminati, but really, he wanted perfection. He wanted to be a God, and to bestow his perfect vision on an imperfect world. She was practice for the new nanotechnology, as were the two units before her, and things were looking good. When he'd hired a few of the Knights Templar to attack her family, she'd been able to defend herself. To see a five-year-old wield better augments and survive when a fully-grown adult with old-tech augs could not- well, it was promising.

Though, there were still a few kinks to work out before he used them, himself. After all, the perfect man needed the perfect augmentations if he wanted to create perfection.

Bob Page smiled to himself. It was actually pretty humorous that she had fallen into the lap of the man with the very DNA she possessed. And it's not like he would realize it. MJ12 had tweaked the genes to throw off suspicion, so she looked different. Any similar mannerisms would end up being attributed to learned behavior and coincidence.

* * *

The second therapy session went about the same way as the first, and Frank begrudgingly admitted that Adam had been right. She simply wouldn't get anything out of seeing a psychologist if she didn't want to, so he resolved to let her know the option was on the table, but not force her again. Besides, she seemed to be bonding with Adam these days. After a few times of meeting each other in the kitchen in the middle of the night, the ex-SWAT had taken to waiting up for her and making 3 a.m. hot chocolate a ritual. She'd give him bits and pieces, according to Adam, but he was reluctant to tell Frank in case that betrayed the girl's trust. The writer was fine with that, as long as she was benefiting, though he admittedly felt maybe just slightly jealous that Alex was more comfortable with the person who hadn't originally wanted her around, rather than the one who'd brought her home in the first place. But nothing he couldn't get over through intellectual means.

He'd been scouting the city for the best kindergarten for the start of the next school-year, and he thought he'd found one. Pritchard wasn't sure how she'd take the news. Alex had been wary of all new situations so far, which made sense after whatever trauma she'd been through. She'd lasted all of five minutes at the zoo before asking to leave, and spent the rest of the day coloring in her room.

* * *

A/N: One thing I'm doing with this story is bridging the gaps between the three Deus Ex games. This chapter took a little longer to get out, as will the next few, because I'm making sure I study things enough in order to grab all the strands and make sense of them, while throwing in non-canon elements with Frank, Adam, and Alex so that it's more fun but still fits.


	5. Chapter 5

Alex grinned from her hiding spot as Frank walked past. She was an expert hider, she knew, and he'd never find her. He'd passed by at least three times, and hadn't even checked in the cupboard.

"Now where could that girl be? I've checked everywhere!" He asked to the room at large, a smirk adorning his face.

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she leapt out from under the kitchen sink and grabbed his leg. "Gotcha!"

The ex-hacker played surprised, then laughed. "You did. You're too good at this game!"

"I know," she giggled, standing up. "Let's see if you can find me now!" She ran into the other room.

Frank followed her, but she was gone when he turned the corner. "Alex?" He peeked into her open closet.

"Found me!" she laughed.

Blinking, the writer stared after her as she skipped away. She hadn't been in the closet, until she suddenly had.

* * *

"I hate to say it, but maybe your eyesight's going? How could she possibly have appeared out of thin air?" Adam stretched on the bed, folding his hands under his head. "It's not like she's loaded up with augs."

Huffing in frustration, Pritchard tried to explain himself. "She literally materialized in front of me. I'm not crazy, Jensen."

"Hey, hey," the cyborg pulled him into a hug, noticing how his disbelief was making the smaller man angry. "If you say it happened, then it happened. I didn't mean to be such an ass about it. So, what do we do?"

His tenseness relenting, Frank relaxed into the embrace. "There's nothing we really can do, is there?"

"I can set her up with one of Sarif's doctors. Get her checked out." The ex-cop's eyes glowed yellow as he scrolled through his contacts before dialing the number for Sarif Industries. After a moment, he looked over to his partner. "Hey, I can't access the internet. Can you?"

The older man leaned over to his nightstand and pulled out his tablet. "No," he answered after a minute. "It's not working for me, either."

* * *

Impatiently, Adam paced around the hotel lobby. It was fifteen minutes past the meeting time. Did no one value punctuality anymore? He stopped himself before thinking a "back in my day" sentence, wondering when he'd turned into a crotchety old man.

Sarif had hinted, years ago, that Adam may want a contact from Page Industries, but had promised not to push it on the ex-cop if he was too sanctimonious. Adam wasn't. When it came to Page Industries, there wasn't much he found immoral to do against them. They'd done enough to him, he reasoned, that digging through their inside information, especially if he ever found out what they were doing with his DNA, was satisfying.

So he'd gone along with the request, much to his boss' delight. Unfortunately, the intel he got was nothing hugely secret, but it still helped Sarif and was worth getting.

An hour later, his contact still hadn't shown, and he noticed that the TV at the bar wasn't working.


End file.
